Women in the EU earned on average 16% less than men in 2016 Lowest pay gap in Romania and Italy, highest in Estonia In 2016, the unadjusted gender pay gap stood at just over 16% in the European Union (EU). In other words, women earned on average 84 cents for every euro a man makes per hour. Across Member States, the gender pay gap in 2016 ranged from just over 5% in Romania and Italy, to more than 25% in Estonia, followed by the Czech Republic and Germany (both almost 22%). On the occasion of International Women’s Day, celebrated each year on 8 March, Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, publishes an article on gender pay gap statistics. This News Release only shows a small part of the large amount of gender based data available at Eurostat.

International Women’s Day is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities.

This year, International Women’s Day comes on the heels of unprecedented global movement for women’s rights, equality and justice. Sexual harassment, violence and discrimination against women has captured headlines and public discourse, propelled by a rising determination for change.

International Women’s Day 2018 is an opportunity to transform this momentum into action, to empower women in all settings, rural and urban, and celebrate the activists who are working relentlessly to claim women’s rights and realize their full potential.

More females than males in personal care, cleaning and teaching professions in the EU

In the most common 20 occupations that cover 76% of the employed persons in the EU, the highest representation of women in the EU in 2016 is recorded in occupations related to personal care (89%), cleaners (84%), office clerks (80%), health technicians (78%) and teachers (71%).

More males than females in construction, transport, industry and science occupations in the EU

From 19th till the 25th of January the Croatian VoVo participated in a training course supported by the Erasmus+ programmes held in Palermo, Italy. The main topic of the course was the creation of a network for social communication in Europe, one of the main points of the network itself is making of the platform. The course involved people from 8 patricipating countries- Italy, Greece, Portugal, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania and Croatia.

During this one week the participants developed their leadership and presentation skills and also gotten an insight into the whole process of the creation of Erasmus+ projects.

Moreover, the participants were accommodated in the heart of Palermo and had the opportunity to experience its culture, food and people thanks to the organization team which made a big effort to make this one of the best Erasmus experiences for all of the participants. The experience of Social Communication Forum brought an additional perspective not just on how the organization works within, but also how it communicates with another NGOs.

From 18th to 25th of October Croatian VoVo team participated in project Colors of Religion together with Italian, Armenian and Georgian team. Project took place in Georgian city of Kobuleti.

Aim was to discuss situations in which members of certain religion may find themselves, especialy in todays time of big migrations around the world.As we were during these 7days discussing and working together in different workshops (fashon show where in artistic way we presented our sending organirations, acting sketches about conflicts between religions,...), or parting during intercultural nights, we were also getting to know each other more and getting to understand each other better.

A side to the official aims of the project, these side effects are equaly important.Organization team was very helpful and they were there for us any time we needed them.We got great experience,we got new friends, great time and a big wish to visit this country some day again.

During the period of 19th to 29th July this summer VoVo's members had an opportunity to participate in a ERASMUS + project "Feel Like a European" which was about human rights in different countries. The project held in Beskiduzu, near Trabzon, Turkey.

It was a unforgettable experience where we learn so much about other people culture, religion, education, daily life and much more. Our guest Fatih was a great host, and his house was very comfy so everybody connected very fast.

Every country had to prepare sessions for one day during the project. Our subject was Freedom of thought and faith, so we had to organize schedule for a day, energizers, different discussion depends of the topic, silent drama and our cultural evening.

In free time, we could go to the beach, stay in the house or do whatever we wanted. Also, we've visited 2 cities Trabzon centre and Ordu.

On our way home, we've stayed for a two day in Istanbul.

After the project, we came to conclusion how our cultural differences doesn't mean anything, because together we had created great experience and family atmosphere in Turkey. Also, we believe everybody should have the equal rights, because in the and we all are the same - we are humans.

We recommend to everyone to participate in such programs, because it's a challenge and it will help you grow as a person.

The youth exchange project did not only aim getting rid of prejudices against Islam, at the same time it aimed for getting rid of fears and negative thoughts against Islamic thoughts/life style and Muslim people's worships. The project was held in Trabzon, Turkey where over 40 young people from Bulgaria, Croatia, UK, Holland and Turkey lived together in the same house, eating at the same table and doing all the activities together for a week from June 22nd ot July 3rd 2017. It was a true melting pot where we were thought about the beauties of Islam and Islamic culture and discussed about problems muslims face nowadays. The activities and discussions included various workshops, ice breaking games, presentations, sightseeing tour, visiting governor, collage, research and discussion, watching documentaries, brain storming, individual work, group work, round-table meeting, parody, simulations, conversation with public, interview, theatre, movie night, cultural nights and so on. We also enjoyed some of the free time swimming in the Black sea and some even tried paragliding! The whole project was professionally organised and executed by the host, FuturEurope – Shokkin Group Turkey, that made sure we remember our beautiful time spent in Turkey on Erasmus+ project.

Starting from last year, VoVo has developed strong cooperation with Gymnasium Classicum in Zagreb. Our cooperation was encouraged by project Info centre for youth, that was cofounded by city of Zagreb. During the project, students had opportunity to participate on different workshops about EU possibilities for youth and involve in various volunteering opportunities provided by VoVo. As a result of workshops and motivating activities, this summer VoVo will send a group of students with teacher as group leader on a youth exchange in historic place of Granada in Spain. Fundacion Escuela de Solidaridad is hosting organization for mentioned project named Discovering Andalucia. During 9 days, participants will live and work inside the Community in Granada sharing their day with 100 socially deprived people. Fundacion Escuela de Solidaridad offers a home to socially disadvantaged people: mothers with children, young immigrants, adolescents at risk and adults. The home and the work-responsibility is the starting point for personal recovery and within it we offer the training necessary for future integration into society. Participants will work together with people of the community and tutors in: Bakery, Gardening, Mosaic, kitchen, Children care (kindergarten and after- school activities), Workshops (wax/candles, soap, pottery, jam, crystal recycled, paper-works…), Special project (eco-building, eco-construction, …), Community building activities and similar. In their spare time participants will visit well known Alhambra castle but also they will visit other monumental places around Granada.

Since their adventure starts soon we can only wish them pleasant trip and we are waiting for post project impressions and photos of this interesting project.

You are aged from 15 to 30 years old? You want to do some changes in your life but you don’t know how?

VoVo’s experts in youth field offer you informative meetings, workshops and counselling in order to discover various opportunities for you and youth in general in EU and in Croatia. To appoint individual meeting send us email on: info@vovo.hr or get in contact with us trough our FB page.

International Volunteer Day gives us an opportunity to celebrate and thank volunteers all over the world, while inspiring a new generation of volunteers to join them in acting for peace and development.

International Volunteer Day is also opportunity to remember all VoVo volunteers that had experience in our partner organizations all over Europe and Asia, all personal growth that they got with this unique experience. VoVo volunteers are grateful to VoVo for encouraging them to take step in this beautiful world of altruism because it is a key of personal welfare and in the same time key for bounding connections in community to make it strong, which makes them ordinary people doing extraordinary actions. How to describe volunteering? It is very difficult; you must experience it to understand feeling that volunteers feels. Most likewise is feeling when you tired go to do sport or gym and that effective benefit that you feel later.

This year, we give volunteers a round of #GlobalApplause in recognition of their commitment, dedication and passion. More than one billion people globally volunteer, internationally and in their own communities, driven by a deep commitment to making the world a better place, for all.

Global citizenship, as exemplified through volunteering, is fundamental to the development, peace and security of our world. Volunteerism gives communities hope, it gives structure when there is none, it provides critical resources to the communities and countries that need them the most. Our common future must prioritize global solidarity, global engagement and “leave no one behind” in order to step up to the challenge of achieving the better future.

Erasmus+ project held in Ankara, Turkey form 29th April till 7th May 2017. It gather 30 youth workers from six different countries and learn them how to get to know how to attract attention to the problems of the refugees who have to live with us, define the way Turkish and European Youth perceive the refugees and positive and negative aspects of their perception, make especially young people view the refugees from a more objective point of view by making them learn the facts about refugees, find out what the youth can do to help the refugees adopt to society, promote the project venue and our country, start a campaign for the sake of refugees in light of the outcome of the project.

By promoting the things, we do on social network we will try to find out how we can be more sensible about this issue and will attract more people’s attention to it.

VoVo together with partners organized international training course under Erasmus+ between 2nd and 9th of September 2016 in Poronin (Poland). The project was attended by participants from Poland, Macedonia, Latvia, Croatia, Romania, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Malta.

Create-Social-Recources (CSR) training was dedicated to people involved and engaged in the implementation of youth projects, initiatives and activities to support young people, particularly from disadvantaged backgrounds, with fewer opportunities. Participants in the project expanded and gained new knowledge, tools and skills in the context of establishing cooperation with the business sector. Within several days of training, we established themes of our workshops to activities within CSR, Social entrepreneurship, the Erasmus +, youth work, promote cooperation and synergies between entities, acting for education of young people, through the use of methods of non-formal education and the business sector. Our training was an opportunity not only to gain valuable knowledge, broaden their horizons and individual development, but also an opportunity for intercultural learning and gain new international friendships and acquaintances.

Here you can find CSR publication that is one of the results of this project: CSR publication

Many of the European Union’s rural areas face a common challenge, as their capacity to create high-quality, sustainable jobs has fallen behind that of urban areas. Generally, incomes are lower in rural regions than in towns or cities and there are fewer job opportunities. Marginalized youth living in rural areas have a problem getting good jobs and continued education to get ahead in life and contribute to society. One of the obvious solutions for them is to move to the city and try to get a job there. Even if they do manage to get one, it is usually not the best paying one.

However, these marginalized youth possess one asset, which isn’t being explored by anyone to its fullest potential – their familiarity with the rural area that they live in. Starting a business in rural areas would be a great vehicle for capitalizing on this asset that they already have. In general, rural areas account only to 15.3% of GDP on average in the EU, which is not too much when we think about the numbers of people living outside the cities.

Rural Rules! Erasmus+ youth exchange made NGOs from Italy, Spain, Cyprus, Turkey, Lithuania and Croatia unite and create a project for youth to expand their knowledge about business opportunities in rural areas. As a result, Erasmus+ youth exchange “Rural Rules” was held in Stasiūnai village (60 km away from Vilnius), Lithuania on September 11-19. The project aimed to raise awareness of participants existing asset, provide them with the skills on how to identify the business opportunities that exist in rural areas & develop the idea.

After the exchange, they stand ready to contribute to the local communities. One of the biggest expected impacts from this is that they could also create jobs for other people in rural areas and especially youth with fewer opportunities. Apart from that, they could also help inspire other marginalized youth to think about their own rural businesses.

Workshops and activities

36 participants arrived to beautiful Stasiūnai village and took part in a variety of workshops and activities. They have also visited Rumsiskes Open Air Museum, where entire buildings and artifacts from towns, villages and farmsteads from all over Lithuania have been brought to and reassembled. It helped the participants understand Lithuanian culture and rural traditions better.

They have also had an opportunity to engage with interesting guests: founder of “Dalios sodyba”, who is a successful rural entrepreneur (http://www.daliossodyba.lt/kontaktai/) and owner of the ‘restaurant in the field’ (http://ooosom.lt/). Finally, the participants took part in how-to sessions, business simulation in rural environment and business idea contest.

Together participants have created many solutions how to prevent unemployment in rural areas and what should be done to improve infrastructure there. All the results will be published later online and in the e-booklet of the project. During the exchange they have learnt a lot about rural entrepreneurship and possibilities of starting their own business. Most importantly, in groups they have developed their ideas for rural business. It is our aspiration that it will inspire them to use the ideas, create start-ups, develop rural areas in their regions and motivate other to do the same.

This summer VoVo’s team of volunteers had an opportunity to participate in a project “New citizens of the world” about immigration issues in Palermo, Italy.

Immigration is one of the most important issues of today's European Union and our society and will be one of the key policies of EU in the future since its demographic future is not looking bright and the burden of welfare state and its policies will fall on ever shrinking labour force. This project was a great opportunity to see the problems that migrants face in their path of becoming a EU citizen. Struggle with bureaucracy, learning new language, getting accustomed to new life styles etc. During the project which was held in old market part of Palermo we have had an opportunity to see vivid Palermo streets, taste local food and meet new people from other Mediterranean countries of EU.

It was a great experience sharing thoughts, ideas and life opinions with other Europeans colleagues. The best part of the project was definitely getting to know Chris and Pascal, two guys from Nigeria, who are actually involved in the program of getting EU citizenship and getting a chance to talk with them about the real difficulties of it and feeling the optimism in their words when they talked about their future in EU and all the opportunities it offers to them. Finally, I would recommend to everyone to take part in such programs, it is a great experience as it’s a chance to see other European countries, feel its lifestyle, meet other people and talk about serious topics concerning everyday life.

This summer VoVo had an intern from Lithuania, Agne Dobilaite. She did Erasmus+ Traineeship program and did her 8 weeks' internship in our organization. Agne joined us in the beginning of July and VoVo has been very happy to see her again. Why again? Because we met her in 2015, on our organized training course "STOP disCRIMEination". At that time, Agne came with a group of Lithuanians and did a great job while participating in activities and final event. We appreciated her input and had no doubts that we will see her again. Finally, after one year she came back. This time not to be a participant but to help us manage our upcoming projects.

This is Agne's feedback about her experience in VoVo and Croatia:

"In short, honestly I can say that this was the best experience in my life. Firstly, I was extremely happy when I got a message from VoVo that they would like to see me again in Zagreb. I also wanted to be a part of VoVo because I know that all members of VoVo are very smart and talented people who devoted their time to achieve the best results. I tried to learn as much as I can from VoVo team because I am sure that they are professionals. My tasks in VoVo were simple but also important to keep projects running. I have learnt how to develop the idea of a project, how to write a letters of invitation to potential partners and how to keep a further contact with them, how to write project application and structured articles. In my heart, I really feel thankful to VoVo for a possibility to get more knowledge in project management.

But during my internship in VoVo, I have to confess that I was not all about working all the time, I really want to say thank for Mia, Luka and Ivor for a great conversation while drinking coffee, for an experience sharing moments, for all advices that you gave me related to my future and for a possibility to explore Croatian cuisine, culture and customs. I would say that this was my adventure with reached goals - to increase my knowledge of international project management and to mature as a person"

Some of us mostly do not imagine how important for children or youth to be in environment where they can learn new things, get social skills, get new experience, play and feel safe at the same time. In order to educate them we, as society and citizens, need to feel responsible for them. It is quite difficult to ignore a problem of abandoned spaces which could be transformed and woke up for a new purpose because we all know that this is our new growing generation.

To increase awareness, highlight the shortage of safe educational spaces and share good practice, VoVo is taking part in the international campaign called ‪#‎InAnyCase‬ which was organized by organization FORME, together with Maghweb, CaravanSerai Palermo and H.R.Y.O Human Rights Youth Organisation that is taking place in Palermo, Sicily. During international festival of cultures called „Meet Me Halfway“, orgnized by HRYO, which will take place on the 23-25 September 2016, #InAnyCase campaign will join this festival as well. During „Meet Me Halfway“, festival, every year is chosen the most disadvantaged quarter of Palermo to bring attention of local authorities and society to take more care of abandoned places and its inhabitants.

The main objectives of #InAnyCase were set to grab the attention of local authorities to think and take care more of the trending problem is society – lack of safe educational spaces. Also to share and promote some good practices from participant’s experience.

FORME, VoVo and other partners from different part of the Europe put many efforts to achieve set goals and we all expect that after this international campaign, local authorities will be aware of the main problem which was deeply dissccused during a week in Palermo – shortage of safe educational spaces for kids and for youth. Also we hopefully believe that in the future there will be even stronger chain of international organizations which will dedicate their work to help for kids and youth and will share their good experience to other organzations. We all will try to encourage to have a stronger cooperation between civil society and public authorities in order to increase the quality educational spaces for those who want to learn new things in a safe and pleasant environment.

To achieve our set goals, there was made an action plan which we followed. We spent few hours taking some pictures in the streets full of playing kids to grab attention of authorities that kids really need safe and educational places to play and learn. The hosts of the international campaign will create a digital application where will be posted our taken pictures with special hashtags: #inanycase ‪#‎shapingopportunities‬.

It is pleasure for VoVo to be part of this international campaign which revealed nowadays very sensitive topic. We will dedicate special time to awake this issue in Croatian society and make ground to help for children and youth in the future.

If you are ever given an opportunity to take part in an all expenses covered project it would be hard to say no… Three Croats, members of VoVo, Valentina, Jakov and Leo decided to take on those odds and depart to Berlin! Within the Erasmus+ programme for youth. From 11th to the 19th of April in Berlin, the training course “IMPROaction” was organized by the informal group “Youth Come on!” and the support of partner in the project NGO VoVo. The name of the project expressed the underlying idea; improvisation, but also there was a second equally important part; entrepreneurship.

Considering the currently high unemployment rate this thematic has perfectly fit in the general discussion about youth possibility and empowerment, as well as to how to prepare them for the labour market. During the 9 days of “IMPROaction” partners from Turkey, Slovakia, Poland, Macedonia, Italy, Greece, Slovenia and Croatia sent 3 participants whose worldviews were expanded and whose intercultural competences also expanded while at the same time learning useful things about improvisation and creativity. On the other hand, they acquired competences about the more formal aspects of the training course, about entrepreneurship. The project lead Filip and Mateusz concluded the project successfully while at the same time cultivating an excellent group dynamic, interpersonal dialogue and a myriad of other skills useful in our everyday lives. The workshops were mainly based on group work while some of the themes were branding, CANVAS business model and improvisation theatre combined with learning methods. Alongside the formal parts of the tc every nation got a chance to show their beauty and interesting points such as food and drink and dance during the intercultural evenings.

The project itself was undertaken in Berlin, more specifically the Grunewald forest in the suburban zone which contributed to the quality of the project since one part was conducted in the park alongside the venue of the project.

All in all, the spontaneous decision to stretch our legs and make something greater of ourselves was more than prudent. Combined with an all expenses payed stay in Berlin, all of us brought home with us new skills, friends and competences outlined in the EU document YOUTHPASS.

If you are ever offered the opportunity to go on Erasmus+ projects grab it immediately!

VoVo bring to the end very successful youth exchange under Erasmus+.We all have our life goals and wishes that we are ready to dedicate our self to a certain extreme in order to make them come to be; fulfilment, success in work, love, game, science… These all pale with the wish for a better and safer life, and that wish is currently herding millions of people from their ancient homes in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southwest Asia towards us, towards Europe! These people are our reality no matter our stance on the matter and we should all be aware that they are already here, among us, working, living and hopefully integrating, an undeniably two way process. The best we can do, whether we are for or against their immigration, is to strive towards achieving a functional co-existence which will benefit both sides. This very notion, that far from developing a solution to the issue during the project which is a silly notion, we should seek to understand it and raise our and other people’s awareness of migrants and their background reasons through workshops, discussions, exchange of ideas and viewpoints and hearing the other side. This all has the goal of empowering us as individuals so that we may approach this topic as informed and responsible citizens of the EU.

VoVo and our partners “Forme” from Italy, “Mostar Friedensprojekt e.V.” from Germany, “Asociacion Mundus – Un Mundo a tus Pies –“ from Spain, “Asociacija ``Aktyvus Jaunimas” from Lithuania and “Fundacja Europejski Instytut Outsourcingu” from Poland organized a youth exchange in Stomorska, on the Croatian island of Šolta, with 39 young people from their organisations on the topic of migration. During their stay in sleepy Stomorska they attracted the attention of the local populace and enjoyed the pure nature and the Mediterranean sun. This proved as an ideal surround for the exchange of ideas and opinions which the project promoted since it facilitated peace of mind, thought and discussion, with a healthy dose of Adriatic Sea and sun of course. Our participants envisioned and created multiple activities with the aim of raising their and others awareness about the migrant issue; they conducted a very successful flashmob on the Riva (waterfront promenade) of Split, the second largest city in Croatia, where they attracted the input of hundreds of passers and the gaze of many more that strolled past during high noon. They also created their own theatrical play about immigration in which the spectators played their own role as immigrants crossing the border. This was played during the ending concert event we organized in Stomorska and during it a sum of donations for the Croatian Red Cross was collected by the inhabitants of Stomorska and the participants.

Enriched with new skills, competences, knowledge and experience as well as a sense of success and accomplishment with a project well done, the organizers and participants left Stomorska with a heavy heart. Stomorska gave us a warm reception, the locals received us humanely and logistically, they provided us without charge with their Old school, repurposed for social events and exhibitions, it now adequately fulfilled the role of a Erasmus+ project venue, and we hope it will again in the future! We thank all our local partners in Stomorska for facilitating our stay, the head of the municipality of Šolta Mr. Cecić-Karuzić, the Pelegrin sports and fishing society with mr. Koludrović, local NGOs Help Split, Rusmarin and Buđenje and all others who worked with us during our stay in Stomorska.

This youth exchange created great results and the participants had an interesting introduction to Croatia and we hope they will return to us in the future again. There shall always be problems in our societies which have to be taken seriously such as the migrant tsunami and we will always have a perfect setting to address them and think on them in Stomorska. Our participants learning process is, however, not over. There is still the post-project phase where we will take the spark of awareness we generated on the youth exchange back to our local communities. We will organize workshops, presentations, lectures, public events, flashmobs etc. at home and use the competences we gained and the results of the project as means to raise awareness in our own fellow countrymen, for those arriving seek that above all, to be our fellow countrymen also…

The days of written media as the main means of disseminating information are past. We live in a modern, interconnected world where the lifeblood of our societies, information, flows through virtual veins of the internet. Therefore, there is no better way of reaching out to others, especially young people, than by means of social media, the foremost of which in the West is Facebook. Our participants revived the group generated during our earlier awarded Erasmus+ training course “Stop disCRIMEination” in Zagreb and compounded on the existing thousand members soon to be an equal amount of new ones. We will use this platform as one of the principal ones for reaching out to our target audiences with the project outputs and thus achieving our aims of bettering our societies through responsible citizenship and critical thought. We are sure that our current results of over 200 new likes and 1870 clicks in the first week will be expanded even more in the future!

We talked about migrants with local community and asked them for their opinion, here is collage of thoughts.

During the migrant crisis, the greatest impact on our opinions and feeling have always been the videos and photos of human tragedy. The most significant by far being the infamous image of young Alan Kurdi face down in the beach sand where there would usually be crowds of joyous tourists. Truly, the picture tells a thousand words and equally amount of feelings, the video serves the same purpose, 24 times per second more. To view the two gives context and feeling to a story and we wanted to show our story to all those interested. The world is not black and white, and that’s why we stand for a colourful world.

Participants did video interview, here you can watch it !

Flashmob in Split – “Paint for a colourful world”:

A colourful world, a dream of common prosperity and peaceful coexistence, an idea worth living and dying for. This was the background of our “Paint for a colourful world” manifestation in Split during which the participants created a Flashmob in which they invited the local community to leave their mark on a great white sheet with the slogan “Paint for a colourful world”. They left their mark in the form of a colourful handprint on the white background, a vivid reminder that we all leave the same mark, no matter which colour it is…

The crowd involvement surpassed our expectations and the sheet filled up very fast so we concluded our Flashmob successfully within just an hour! Many of the participants wished to continue so they did so on their own initiative as they spread out throughout the city centre of Split. Of great aid was our local partner, HELP Split, which invited us to prepare for the Flashmob in its own quarters and showed us around the city.

The Flashmob was a resounding success and many of the people that participated inquired about our project, our mission, our background and discovered not only their interest and opinion about migrants, but also an awareness of our European dimension, our joint citizenship and responsibility to work together on a bright future which is Europa.

Between 6-13 of March 2016 VoVo took part in Partnership Building Activity ‘Go Pro!’ in Krakow, Poland, hosted by Institute for Eastern Initiatives.

The main aim of the project was to bring together representatives of non-governmental organisations from 12 European countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, France, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain - to share their professional knowledge, experience and good practices in the field of youth work and to develop reliable, long-lasting partnerships for international projects. The first half of the week has been spent introducing our NGOs and mapping out possible fields and frames for mutual cooperation. We have been working from the bottom up to establish basics of the organisation for reliable partnerships to be able to move on to developing specific projects in the second half of the week. The second half of the project was devoted to developing new ideas and plans for further cooperation. An addition to the project will be soon-to-be-published professional toolkit of project management for everyone to use: a collection of tips and tricks and well-working practices shared by all participants.

Everyone - men and women - can pledge to take a concrete step to help achieve gender parity more quickly, whether to help women and girls achieve their ambitions, call for gender-balanced leadership, respect and value difference, develop more inclusive and flexible cultures or root out workplace bias. Each of us can be a leader within our own spheres of influence and commit to take pragmatic action to help include and advance women. Share amongst your friends, social networks and communities and encourage them to make a pledge as well. Together, we can accelerate the clock.

Gender parity is linked to economic prosperity. It's an economic imperative. Women’s advancement and leadership are central to business performance and economic prosperity. Profitability, ROI and innovation all increase when women are counted among senior leadership.

Discrimination continues to affect the lives of millions of people around the world. On 1 March, Zero Discrimination Day, people from all corners of the world unite under the theme of Open Up, Reach Out in order to celebrate diversity and reject discrimination in all its forms.

Zero Discrimination Day is annual worldwide event that promotes diversity and recognizes that everyone counts, the global movement of solidarity to end discrimination, which remains widespread. Millions of women and girls in every region of the world experience violence and abuse and are unable to exercise their rights or gain access to health-care services, education or employment. Discrimination at work, school and health-care and other settings reduces people’s ability to participate fully and meaningfully in societies and provide and care for themselves and their families.

“Discrimination is a violation of human rights and must not go unchallenged,” said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “Everyone has the right to live with respect and dignity.”

VoVo invites you to Open Up, Reach Out, using social media channels (https://www.facebook.com/stopdiscrimeination) to tell the world what zero discrimination means to you. People have shared songs, poems, thoughts and activities inspired by the butterfly, the transformative symbol of the campaign. People are also calling on their governments to make greater efforts to realize and protect human rights and eliminate discrimination. Make your own contribution in making world better place.

From 27th April till 07th May 2016 VoVo will organize 9 days long Youth Exchange under Erasmus+ on theme of migrants. It will gather 36 participants from 6 countries all over the Europe. Participants from Croatia (organizer), Italy, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Spain will together work on tasks, share knowledge and work on future projects.

All humans share the Earth as their home despite living thousands of kilometres apart from each other, our connection to each other is equal to our connection to the earth itself and as we strive to preserve the nature, so should we strive to preserve humanity, our family! It is a sad sight to see so many of our brothers and sisters leaving their homes in search of a new one amongst us in Europe and this has certainly been the main political, geopolitical and humanitarian topic during the last year and it promises to remain in the focus for an indefinite time in the future.

The immigrants and refugees among us and the ones yet to arrive are our reality and as youth workers and civil sector organisations it is our duty to involve this new demography into our target groups where applicable and, where our mission moves us to do so, help integrate them into our societies. Many of these people are young people choses in the community for their strength to make the difficult trip and they carry a heavy burden of responsibility which has to be acknowledged and respected. Despite this, there is always the other side, the welcoming or sometimes simply, the receiving side whose input cannot be side lined in search of a prosperous coexistence.

With these problematics in mind we set forth to creating a youth exchange which would tackle them from a young person’s perspective, further moved by the everyday sight of the human river moving through our nation. We will approach the topic with non-formal education methods in a remote location on one of the most beautiful islands in Croatia, Šolta. This island has a long history with migrations, mostly emigration of the young. We will provide the sleepy island community a glimpse of Erasmus+ and the great opportunities for mobility it offers.

WE look forward to the youth exchange and all the positive things it will offer to our participants, to our partners and to the local community. See you in Šolta!

VoVo had presentation of Good practices, awarded project on Erasmus+ info days organized by Agency for Mobility and EU Programmes (Croatian NA)

We are very glade that Croatian NA recognized our dedicated work and gave us opportunity to present our work as an encouragement for other NGOs in Croatia to upgrade their quality of participation in the field of youth in Erasmus+.

It was honor to participate on info days with most respectful Croatian experts in the field of youth specially with honorable dr.sc. Vlasta Ilišin from Institute for Social Research in Zagreb and Morana Makovec from Ministry of Social Politics and Youth in Croatia that we all have to learn.

Two years have passed since three enthusiastic students came together to form "VoVo" and ever since that eventful morning we have been fulfilling our mission with dedication and sacrifice. In this time the name "VoVo" has become associated with success, quality and impact as our modus operandi has ever been quality over quantity. Our projects are our tools with which we build a better society as underlined by our initial goals and motivations and the tool is only as good as the person wielding it! By means of creativity and proffessionality we have achieved outstanding results in a surprisingly short timeframe. The feedback of the National agency has been a great source of quality control and we revere their suggestions and seek to implement them in our future work since this is a resource of experience that can otherwise only be gained through years of hard work.

That is why it was to our immense joy and pride that the National agency bodies above it have recognized and acclaimed our work as an example of good practice to others. This had further impact on the annual conference organized by the Croatian National agency where our Mia Mardešić, the executive director of "VoVo" and in many ways our creative driving force and the author of the project that received the award, gave a lecture and presentation to the gathered civil sector workers during the conference.

We hope that others will draw inspiration and motivation from our hard work and further apply themselves towards creating a better society for ourselves and those that come after us!

As always, we invite all willing potential partners to cooperate with us and share our vision, dedication and proffessionality. This is only the beginning and ahead of us is a long and important path.

For almost half a century HIV has proven to be an elusive enemy of humanity and medicine, yet at the same time, deadly. That is why soo much attention is given to prevention and protection against it and othet STI's which is promoted every year since 1988 throughout the world on the first of December in order to raise public awareness of this affliction and ways to prevent it. The same is true for Croatia and in many of our cities there have been activities organized by CSO's such as VoVo did with our partners, HELP and CROmsic in Split this year.

Our volunteers participated in the annual AIDS day activities organized by HELP Split, a respected partner organization which defines its field in many ways. We held posts behind improvised stands offering passing citizens information about HIV and other STI's and stealing their attention with informative and provocative posters, while at the sime time approaching young people and inviting them to involve themselves in youthwork and volunteerism, while also handing out free preservatives.

Our volunteers from Zagreb got a chance to interact with their colleagues and peers in Split from HELP and VoVo, while our Split volunteers got a chance to meets their colleagues from Zagreb. This activity was a great example of how youthwork can help further all our lives and raise awareness about important topics such as HIV AIDS and volunteerism as well as foster partnership between civil sector organisations. We thank all our and our partners volunteers for their time and dedication during the World AIDS day and we hope to see you again next year!

VoVo is embarking on a project called; "EU fondovi pokretači mladih" Its purpose is to empower youth for writing EU projects, project organisation, coordination and implementation.

VoVo will be employing within the programme „Mladi za EU“ (Youth for EU) and will help its employees achieve competence in the fields of project imagination, creation, setting project goals and aims, developing a problem overview and predictions as well as problem management. The employee will furthermore learn how to fill an project application form, budget projections, budget management, preparatory activities for projects, dissemination of project results, preparaing and fulfilling final evaluation forms and final reports. The employee will also conduct terrain activities for the organisation such as scouting the terrain for project implementation, they will facilitate contact with partners and managing mandate letters. The employees work will be managed and coordinated with the help of a mentor. VoVo will employ all together two qualified persons of (qualifications sought; social work, psychology, defectology, economics).

Wanted:

Employee that will be qualified for work concerning writing EU youth mobility projects, primarily Erasmus+ key action 1. He or she will also work on preparing projects under the programma European social fund. The work detail will also cover terrain trips for estimating target groups and their needs, creating new partnerships and developing existing partner network, planning project drafts, pre-project preparatory activities, maintaining a project diary, taking part in writing the final report, overseeing financial ledgers and writing the final financial report as well as other administrative labours. This employee will be in direct contact with project stakeholders and will coordinate the work of others on projects.

Employee that will be qualified for work concerning EVS projects under the Erasmus+ programme. He or she will coordinate the EVS volunteers, provide support, mentoring, help with organising various project activities with the aim of promoting volunteerism. Furthermore, the employee will conduct educations for volunteers (domestic and foreign which will be present and participating in local projects). Before starting their work with the volunteers, the employee will pass a course in volunteer management and will receive a certificate in it. That way we strive to create an individual capable for EVS volunteer work which will improve the outcomes and impact of our projects.

We invite all interested to send us their CV to info@vovo.hr under the subject: EU PROJECT MANAGER until the 26th of October 2015 at 12:00.

The selected candidates will be notified on the 27th of October about the second level of selection which will be done on the 28th and 29th of October 2015.

VoVo members visited Villacañas, a municipality located in the province of Toledo, Castile-La Mancha in Spain a place where the Erasmus+ Youth Exchange project held from 15th to 23rd of September 2015. The project had 38 participants from 6 different countries: Poland, Romania, Croatia, Lituania, Italy and Spain.

The topic of the project was "Policy rules". In the project we had many activities for exchanging experiences on the subject. Everybody made a brief presentation about the political situation in their country, and then we tried to find out how much citizens of each county are able to influence politics; by being a member of the political party, voting or similar.

The core of the project were two workshops throughout which we have tried to find a solution on a given topics and at the end of the fourth day every group held a presentation and played a short video. One of the workshops was called " I am a citizen" and was dealing with new ideas for citizen projects and the other one " I am involved" was about new local plans focused on employment. For each project we were divided into small groups that consisted of participants from each country which gave us a great way to learn on how people from different countries think and how they will approach a problem. Also, it was great to hear solutions of the same problems from different participants according to their knowledge and habits they brought from their homeland.

Besides that main workshop we had many other activities based on non-formal education and learning by participation. We have also been visited by Villacañas authorities; representative of local politicians who held a speech about how local government is trying to solve a problem of unemployment due to economical situation.

Moreover, we had a cultural sightseeing in Toledo the seat of government of the Province of the Toledo, as well as former capital and also known as the “city of the three cultures”. It is called that way because Christians, Muslims and Jews lived together there for centuries. After the formal part of Regional Parliament building where we learnt more about the political situation in a region and Spain in general, we had free time for sightseeing of monuments, museums, churches and of course we had an opportunity to try Toledo's traditional cuisine.

As usual at youth exchanges, every evening each of the participating countries had their cultural evening, which consisted of presentation and a party. During these, the presenting teams would show their country’s traditions, culture, music, dances as well as cuisine.

The principle motivation behind this project is the need to raise awareness about alternative approaches to the economy, society and life in general. One of these alternative approaches is social entrepreneurship which combines the issues of social responsibility, inclusion, awareness, active citizenship, fair trade etc. with a business model which creates special market conditions in which social entrepreneurship may and may not be in an inferior position compared to regular businesses, all depending on the level of awareness of the consumers.The social mission which separates social entrepreneurship from normal entrepreneurship represents an extremely potent method for social inclusion, a general tool which can be translated to other private and public ventures if given chance.

That’s why through this project we explored the theoretical background of business models, funding methods, community outreach, case studies, success stories and concrete local examples of social entrepreneurship and its aspect of social inclusion. The participants received ample theoretical input from professional trainers and social business managers which enabled them to brainstorm and creatively imagine ideas for future social entrepreneurships which they might one day conduct.

Through this process we compiled a booklet which summarizes the competences, methodology and knowledge generated and used throughout the training course which will serve as a tool and guidebook to future social entrepreneurs and civil sector organizations that seek to create projects of their own about similar topics and to educate potential entrepreneurs.

This was achieved through a combination of non formal and formal education methods undertaken by professional staff during 8 days in Mirkovci, near Zagreb, Croatia which was chosen for the venue since it is located in a degrading rural area which could benefit allot from social entrepreneurship but also because it is nearby successful examples of Croatian social entrepreneurship companies which all owed us to take the participants for a tour of an actual business where they interacted with the employees and learned first hand what it means to be an social entrepreneurship, it was the crown to the previous days of theoretical work. The results of the project are disseminated on social media platforms and websites. The entire outcome will serve as a basis for future cooperation among participants who will find potential future partners working in the same field of interest.

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, the validity of that claim we wont test but that there is some truth to it is undoubted. A good picture can transfer the emotion of the moment and the message much better than a word can and that is why to reinforce our message and make it more understandable and sympathetic we employed photo and video methods during our project and dissemination activities.

The photographs themselves are accompanied by encouragement lines which support the pictures message and make improve its impact on the viewer. The pictures have all been created, selected and edited by the participants with help from professional video and photo qualified trainer. Their message is meant for all to consume and digest with the intention that they raise awareness, promote responsibility and popularize social inclusion and social entrepreneurship within the society.

Booklet

The booklet itself is the central intellectual output of the training course. Its aim is to equip the reader with the tools needed to start working on the topic of Social Entrepreneurship with the local youth in their communities through providing example of sessions with a wide range of objectives and methods. The guiding principle that this booklet is based on are the principles of Non-formal education, more specifically its central tenet; participation through which the participants improve their learning process and increase the collective added value of the activity.

The booklet and its content is always structured so that it firstly allows for theoretical input from professionals so that the participants may grasp the issue and gain a basic understanding before proceeding to the second part which is the practical application of the previously gained knowledge. These methods range from brainstorming, debates, simulations, case studies, round table discussions, group work, teambuilding etc.

The intended users of this booklet are youth workers, youth leaders, trainers, educators, entrepreneurs etc. and in line with that the end target group is youth interested in (Social) Entrepreneurship, though no prior formal or other knowledge of the topic is necessary.

To download booklet, materials for workshhops and read more visit our web page of booklet !

The second visual method used to reinforce the learning process of the participants and the impact on the target groups and all other stakeholders was a video project. As was the case with the photograph project, the video has been conceived, filmed and edited by the participants with the aid of the trainers. It summarizes the project in a short video meant to allow other stakeholders a glimpse of the participant’s work, learning process, their results, hopes, new competences and, most importantly, the message this project is meant to transfer on the community; social inclusion, responsibility, common European values, multiculturalism and youth participation in an interesting 4 minute package.

Visit to social enterprise Humana Nova

The project authors envisioned the learning process to be incomplete without the participants being given a chance to see in practice what social entrepreneurship means and what is its relation to social inclusion. Therefore, we included in the project a tour of a local Croatian social entrepreneurship which employs people with fewer possibilities in its everyday work. The organization that was chosen was Humana Nova (geographic proximity, compatible social mission, successful example). The director of Humana Nova told the participants what it means to run such a business, what are the obstacles encountered, how to tackle them, suggestions and motivation etc. after which the participants had a chance to ask the manager questions through which they tested the competences acquired during the previous days. This visit was crowned with a guided tour of the facility and opportunity to interact with the employees and support Humana Nova through purchasing their goods, recycled textile merchandise.

This visit was organized for one of the last days so that the participants might better organize their theoretical skills and temper them with the raw experience and input of the Humana Nova director before they engaged into their practical part of the training course, brainstorming and envisioning examples of social entrepreneurship with the social inclusion mission.

The final stage of the project was the social event organized for the participants and locals during which the results of the project were exhibited in an appropriate ceremony which also included handing out youthpass certificates to the participants.

This was the formal closing of the project which yielded many results which will hopefully be useful to the future work of the participants, partners and other stakeholders.

Attending the social event were members of the local community and the venue staff which got a insight into Erasmus+ and its possibilities.

VoVo is very proud of our booklet made on topic of social entrepreneurship that is applicable from youngsters, youth workers, decision makers to experience entrepreneurs.

What is this booklet for?

The booklet you are reading aims to equip you, dear reader, with a set of tools to start working the concept of Social Entrepreneurship with the youngsters of your local community. In other words, in this booklet you will find a whole set of sessions to make your target group familiar with the principles and essential tools of Social Entrepreneurship.

Methodology

The training proposal you’ll find in this document is deeply rooted in the principles of non-formal education (NFE). Therefore, the methodologies used throughout the whole activity, in each and every session, are always based on participation. Another key feature of the training course is the focus on practice. The heaven of ideas is always worth to visit but is on the earth of everyday life where we are. A theoretical input is always followed by a practical approach to the topic. Learning by doing is the motto.

These two main features are translated into the sessions in a large variety of methods such as brainstorming, debates, simulations, case studies, round-tables, role games, etc.

Profile – Target Group

The proposed training course is aimed to youngsters and young people willing to become familiar with Entrepreneurship in general and Social Entrepreneurship in particular. No prior knowledge on finance or accounting is required, since it’s an introductory training course.

Structure

Two main blocks can be easily distinguished in the proposal. The first one, under the name essential competences for Entrepreneurship explores, as the name clearly states, the main competences in order to successfully start and run an enterprise. Firstly, it offers an outlook of those skills and attitudes commonly agreed as essential for employability. In the second session, out of the nine competences pointed out previously two of them have been selected to be explored thoughtfully: teamwork and effective communication. It’s clear that many other competences would deserve a similar treatment but time restraints prevent us from doing so.

Teamwork is, needless to say, quite a broad concept, with many different dimensions and related competences. In this proposal, the stress is given on a key and time consuming aspect of every organization, meeting management. Effective communication can be also explored from many different points of view, the one chosen for our proposal, it’s connected with conveying our ideas in a clear and concise way, the so-called elevator pitch. The second block goes into the roots of Entrepreneurship, putting aside abstract reflections on the concept and providing instead a clear practical approach.

The starting point is the Business Model, a key tool to bring ideas to the ground. Out of the many possible business models, two of the will be carefully studied: Canvas and the Business Plan. Canvas has become an extremely popular tool to represent on a single document the essentials of a business idea. On other hand, the business plan as detailed as it can be, is required for many agents, ranging from financial institutions to business angels or entities organizing awards and competitions.

Once the business idea has been represented is time to start thinking of implementation. At this stage, funding and support are most needed. That’s why two sessions are devoted to explore the funding opportunities and the support structures available to entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs. The last block of sessions, the Case Study aims to apply in a practical way all the learnings gained in the previous sessions. Participants will be asked to go through the process of designing a business idea and present it briefly to their colleagues.

Out of the sessions belonging to the two blocks above mentioned in the proposal you can find more sessions scheduled in the training course. They provide the required framework to develop an effective learning space, dealing with aspects like improving participants capabilities for team work or setting the activity groundbase rules, and give space to evaluate the activity.

How to use it?

In the booklet, as it was said, you will find a complete set of sessions structured under a logical framework that goes along five working days. You can choose between implementing the training course as it’s given or to pick those sessions you’re interested the most. Although they follow a logical sequence, you can rearrange them or work only on certain topics. It’s up to you.

If something is worth doing, it’s worth doing well. That is the premise behind our work and motivation, quality over quantity. In all our project we invest ourselves to the limits of our possibilities with the aim of creating the best projects possible. This is the simplest way of explaining our work ethic and far from degrading ourselves into pointless self praise we strive to deduce the deficiencies in our work so that we may attain even higher levels of quality in the future.

Therefore, it was to our great joy that our dedication was recognized by supervising bodies for our work. The project “Stop disCRIMEination!” has been declared as an example of good practice and inspiration for others in its field by the VALOR Dissemination Platform.

The Adriatic coast is without doubt a great gift of nature and a great endowment to the human race. This karst coast of limestone and dolomite is straddled by 1181 islands and reefs, 48 of which are inhabited. These islands represent a specific environment in both the human and natural aspect. They are isolated ecological and social systems that cope differently with outside input as opposed to much more integrated and connected coastal regions. First of all, the employment and self-development opportunities for young people are limited or more often non-existent! In line with this, volunteerism and international mobility present a great tool for the empowerment and stabilization of youth on the islands.

Vovo, as a civil society organisation with the paramount goal of promoting volunteering and altruism (it’s in the name!) is obligated to facilitate the promotion and introduction of volunteerism, altruism, active citizenship and European values to all instances of the national and international youth. We recognized the needs and limitations of the island youths and conduct this case study to determine the extent and perception of the problematic within the youth of the island of Šolta, which has been chosen because of its ideal geographic location diametrically opposite to the great city of Split with a simple 30-45 minutes boat ride, a situation by far the most favourable in the central Dalmatian coast. The proximity to a large urban centre which is the macro regional centre of Dalmatia with a large concentration of central functions relevant for developing consciousness about volunteerism and international mobility allows us to assume that Šolta will have a much more access to information, technology and first-hand examples of the benefits and possibilities offered by volunteerism.se' Label of the read less button

Therefore, we developed two basic thesis about the situation on Šolta which we will strive to confirm or prove wrong during this short case study which will cover a simple survey and a small seminar organized by the VoVo organizations in coordination with our partners from HELP Split which will provide us with the infrastructure as well as a greatly experienced staff member which will be the educator during the seminar for the handful of youth present on the island before the tourist season.

The youth of Šolta will have basic information about volunteerism and its role in society as well as basic forms of collective association which might include volunteer activities

We do not expect that there is any form of developed endogenous international mobility resource but the island has been host to many external organizations and associations which conducted their activities on it so the youth might have basic information about their possibilities in international, and more importantly European mobility since as the newest member of the EU, Croatian society should embrace all that is offered to it.

Furthermore, it is logical to assume that the situation determined on Šolta will be much less favourable on other Dalmatian islands since all others are farther away from the functional centres on the coast and thus more isolated from information, technology and examples. The expected decrease is influenced most of all by the unfavourable geographic location of other islands in regards to their coastal centres, the farther islands located 5 or more hours from the coast which in turn forces the economically active population to seek employment outside the island and therefore invest less of their time and creativity on the island which decreases motivation for volunteering. This is a nomothetic assumption before all because, as we all know, the individual has ever been the motor of innovation in the society and an extraordinary person could be the exemption that proves the rule.

The seminar will concern examples of volunteer activities as well as international and European mobility through the Erasmus+ programme, more specifically examples of activities which are ideal for conducting on the island such as ecologically themes youth exchanges or self-employment competences (digital, cultural, foreign language etc.) generated through training courses. The aim of the seminar is to introduce the youth to the abovementioned concepts through non-formal education so that they may be the focus of innovation and volunteerism in their societies. VoVo will continue to work and coordinate with the educated individuals and strive to undertake more of our activities on the islands so that we might show first-hand the beauty and worth of the Erasmus+ programme!

We keep our word, proof of which are the projects applied on the April deadline which will, if approved, take place on Šolta.

VoVo team during CSR+ project in February 2015, Tallinn strated preparing strategic partnership with partners from Germany, Poland, Bosnia and Turkey. Theme is youth unemployment, the most important socioeconomic and political problem of most of the EU countries. Traditionally unemployment of youth is twice as high as general unemploymnet. Italy youth has an unemployment rate higher than 40 percent, Croatia higher than 50 percent, in Greece the youth unemployment propels to unseen height. Unemployed youth stirs social unrest, damages the economic development and underutilizes eh potentials of most countries. Youth unemployment is unevenly distributed and hits, those who are poor and less educated. Youth workers are situated with their work in the middle of all these problems. While they are able to support and empower drug addicts, persons with family and personal problems, deal with criminal carreers, they cannot solve unemployment.

This strategic partnership project will build a network of six NGOs from Croatia (2), Poland, Germany, Bosnia and Turkey that will develop a joint approach of empowering youth workers that have to deal with high youth unemployment. The network will develop a toolbox of clearly formulated methods and ideas, which will serve youth workers to deal with the problem of high youth unemployment in their own environment. The participating organisations are all to mobilize through their own network the collaboration and if possible also the participation of some five entrepreneurs each, find the suppoirt of social or public enterprises, socalled corporate social responsibiltiy. These 30 companies will serve with their specific entrepreneurial knowledge as an important focus group but also as a means of mobilizing corporate social responsibility in the project itself. The project will create a model Youth Exchange for unemployed youth, during which a large number of the tools and methods will be put into practice and be improved in collaboration with young participants. The Youth Exchange will be documented. Additionally the project will create a Training Course for 20 Youth Workers (and 4 trainers from the participating NGOs), where the tools, methods and ideas will be transferred to them and where they will be introduced to the results and a documentation of the Youth Exchange for unemployed youth. Additionally the project will create a conference in Croatia, where involved 50 youth workers, representatives from state and public institutions from Croatia and abroad will report about their successes and failures in applying the learnt methods, tools and ideas in their environemnt with state institutions, representatives of the civil society, NGOs and political stakeholders from other institutions and organisation.

The results of the project will be documented in all its details on an openly accessible share drive. The project will also be documented in written report and a film to serve other youth workers throughout Europe as a support for their youth work. It will published and maintaint on a separated website, which will be made known to hundreds of organisations throughout Europe. It will also be presented on the EU-Erasmus dissemination website.The output will be widely distributed directly in a network of Croatian, Polish, Turkish and Bosnian youth workers, that have to cope in their daily work with the problems of systemic youth unemployment. These networks will later serve as a tool of intercooperation for follow-up workshops and especially for further youth exchanges for unemployed youth.

VoVo will from 14th August till 22nd August 2015 organize 8 days long Training Course under Erasmus+ on theme of social entrepreneurship. It will gather 30 participants from 10 countries all over the Europe. Participants from Croatia (organizer), Georgia, Armenia, Slovakia, Moldova, Italy, Spain, Ukraine, Romania and Poland will together work on tasks, share knowledge andwork on future projects.

Main goal of the project is to indicate importance of fighting against social exclusion by showing participants how to develop and successfully lead social enterprise Gained knowledge they could also use as youth workers in their organization to improve quality aspect of their enrolment in organization.

We believe that with this 8 days long training course participants will upgrade their knowledge in field managing finances, time management, organization skills, leadership skills, communication skills and much more.

Method used on TC will be non-formal education and we'll achieve this true simulations games, role playing, power point presentations, interactive games, icebreakers, energizers, team building activities, debates and a "study" visit to Croatian very successful social enterprise.

As a result of the project youth works will develop new skills in field of social entrepreneurship and reach better understanding of social problems. They will deepen the sense of entrepreneurship and responsibility of their work among their target groups. Due to improvement and professionalize of their work they will be more attractive and more influential in their community, thus they will bring more attention to concerning social issues and engage more people in their work. The results of the project will be shared on social media platforms and websites. The entire outcome will serve as a basis for future cooperation among participants who will find potential future partners working in the same field of interest.

At the end participants will have opportunity to develop plan for social enterprise which they can use later as platform for organizing one within their organization. This actions will be process of dissemination of results same as social event during which we are planning to present booklet and project results to wider audience. After the project their responsibility will be to organize a forum or a workshop where they will present booklet and knowledge gained on this project to local community.

"Young Europeans" is a new tool by Eurostat which is primarily designed for young people aged 16-29. It provides them the possibility to compare themselves with other young men and women in their country. This tool is also intended for parents, decision-makers, politicians, teachers, etc. who want to know more about the young generation in Europe.

"Young Europeans" consists of quiz-like questions about the life of young Europeans on 4 different themes: me & my family, me & my work, me & my free time and studies, and me & the internet. Before starting, please choose your gender, your country and your age. If you are not between 16 and 29 years old, you should choose the age in this range you are most interested in.

The theme of European Youth Week 2015 is encouraging and helping young people to take part in civil society and in the employment market. To raise awareness about how important it is to participate in society and make sure your voice is heard. On that theme VoVo made special video how to rise Active Citizenship.

Also one of the aims of the European Youth Week 2015 is to help to understand how developing a wide range of different skills, often outside of school or university, will help you to find a job. On this topic VoVo actively work under European Social Fund on project "Daj za budućnost i imaš mogućnost" (Give for the future and you have opportunity) also on new just applied two yearlong Erasmus+ strategic partnership "Get out of your Box" as a main topic is how to make a network that will develop a toolbox of formulated methods and ideas which will serve youth workers to deal with a problem of high youth unemployment in their own environment. We have a lot of projects behind us, you can read about them on our web pages.

Hundreds of events are going to be taking place across Europe between the 27th of April and the 10th of May, ranging from youth conferences to rock concerts, all based around these themes.

Hundreds of thousands of young people each year take part in youth exchanges, European Voluntary Service and other youth projects which are funded by the European Union. Over 150 projects were nominated by Erasmus+ National Agencies in recognition of their outstanding work, and 35 of them have been shortlisted to receive one of three prestigious Youth Awards. Click on Youth Awards and then come back after the Youth Awards ceremony on the 6th of May to find out which projects received the awards.

Young people around Europe have been generating inspiring and innovative ideas on how to tackle youth unemployment, boosting youth entrepreneurship, encouraging young people to be active in civic life, and engaging young Europeans in international development issues. We want your help to prioritise their ideas by voting for each one. Visit the Ideas Lab to see their great ideas and to start voting for them!

Discrimination is as old as humanity is, it is one of our fundamental flaws which has only gotten worse as we progressed and achieved the pinnacle of civilization; the western civilization. This issue is especially important in the new, globalized, world where borders and distance have contracted and all but disappeared which gives individuals a greater responsibility in regards to fellow humans of other races, nationalities, religions, sex, gender, social class etc. The main problem now is whether we are aware of this or not about this responsibility!? Soo many of us have dealt and received discrimination at some point in our lives and gone on without giving it a second thought or glance. This is unacceptable, especially in the New Europe we are building through cooperation of a myriad of different groups of people. That is why we sought to, above all, raise the awareness about discrimination amongst the youth of Europe so that they may recognize it, act against it and help build a more accepting and integrated society, not necessarily the failed multiculturalism, but an egalitarian society in which all would have an equal opportunity for happiness and success without passive or active discrimination from other groups and individuals.

This is why we envisioned, prepared, organized and successfully brought to an end the youth mobility project activity “Stop disCRIMEination”. The project has been created under the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union with the patronage and confidence of the Croatian National agency. The central idea and message of the project is recognized in its very name, discrimination is a CRIME! We have brought this message to our 24 participants, youth from all over Europe, Asia and Africa, through the use of non-formal education, lectures, workshops, and outdoor activities such as flash mobs, direct contact with local community and other methods. Our trainers motivated the participants to think about discrimination as a crime, showed them examples and most importantly of all, guided them through the creation of tools and methods for fighting this crime.

The days of written media as the main means of disseminating information are past. We live in a modern, interconnected world where the lifeblood of our societies, information, flows through virtual veins of the internet. Therefore, there is no better way of reaching out to others, especially young people, than by means of social media, the foremost of which in the West is Facebook. Our participants created fb social campaign to spread awareness about discrimination, in fist week fb page reached more than 600 likes and posts were reached in more than 2000 views, VoVo is sure that big attention to this social campaign will be in future.

Flashmob STOP disCRIMEination !

In order to involve the local community in our project and raise general awareness about discrimination and other relevant issues we organized a flash mob at the Zagreb Student Centre. The concept was to place little messages about discrimination within balloons which would then be destroyed by everyone taking part in the flash mob thus revealing the message inside.

The flashmob was a resounding success and during our one hour stay in front of the Student Centre during lunch time we popped over 200 balloons and reached at least ten times that number! The students and others that took part in our flash mob very genuinely interested in our work, the project, discrimination and more importantly, in youth mobility and what the EU can offer us all.

Photo Campaign; STOP disCRIMEination !

Throughout all of our project we always strive to endow our participants with a variety of useful competences and one them are certainly digital competences photography and videography. With this in mind, our trainers instructed the participants in ways how to approach different and important issues through photo and video. To fight discrimination through a photo campaign is to give it a whole new meaning, when we read about it is not the same as seeing it. The image of humanity failing in accepting everyone equally burn and lasting image in our conscience, the one thing which is most important in the fight against discrimination!

Our participants showed how through helping discriminated we can change perception from black and white to more colourful and in final to bright future for everyone.

Logo Campaign

Representing things through marks and pictures is old as humanity is. A central part of our programming is to draw links and connections between disparate things and ideas. This is how we enhance our learning process, facilitate memorizing and recollection and also, this is how we can keep a hard and uncomfortable but important issue alive and actual.

This is why our participants created different logos about discrimination which were then printed on T-shirts in anticipation of our outdoor activities. These T-shirts will serve to carry the torch of responsibility and awareness wherever we go! We are very proud of the imaginative and powerful logos created by our participants and we will gladly provide an identical T-shirt to everyone willing.

Social Experiment

Youth from all over Europe and the World came together during this project, all glowing with the same wish to learn, share, accept and breathe in other cultures and customs. We brought them all to the most beautiful country on the planet so that they may surpass petty differences and borders. But, despite all its natural beauty, are the people of Croatia as wide and accepting as their homeland?

To find out our participants conducted a little social experiment, a type of „hidden camera“ where random local persons were approached by them and asked for help. What do you think they found? A will and drive to help or dismissal; find out in our video!

Social Event

Invitation flyer:

The results of this training course are very actual and applicable to all our societies and it will be made available to everyone interested in this topic. We hope that the results, both photographic and videographic as well as social media campaigns, will raise awareness about the issue of discriminations and that through this raised awareness we would all contribute towards a better World. If someone is aware and perceptive about discrimination, they will be more qualified to cry out against it, to recognize even the most benign instances and thus help raise the awareness of others. This is the effect we want this project to achieve, a snowball effect which will compound and exponentially propagate through all layers of our societies.

In the end, we should all look at ourselves first, are we truly inclusive and accepting? Do we do enough to improve the situation or do we turn our head and continue on with our lives in blissful arrogance? This is the cowards methods and none of us should resort to it, especially not the youth of the New Europe which is based on values that are anathema to discrimination; responsibility, awareness, tolerance and active citizenship!

VoVo went to Advanced Preliminary Visit (APV) of Erasmus+ programme in Rome, Italy from 16th to 18th of April 2015. This preliminary visit was meeting with group of team leaders and some participants who will take part in the Youth exchange called EmployMe! Organized by promotor I.N.F.A.P (Istituto Nazionale Formazione e Addestramento Professionale).

EmployME! is a Multilateral Youth Exchange project brought to collect participants from countries around Europe for talking, discussing, reflecting, sharing possibilities for addressing the young people for today’s and tomorrow’s job market.

The topic of the project is Enhancing Youth Experience & Skills Trough Participation and Volunteering. Taking advantage of all their skills and capabilities gained throughout their previous and present work as volunteers and know how to improve in their professional life. The partners on the Project was Youth Organizations from Portugal, Estonia, Romania and Croatia.

We were debating about the activities which will held during exchange from 10th to 16th of June 2015 in Vebito City, Italy. It was an important moment of confrontation where we could give our own contributing, express our needs and ambitions about the project. We were briefly gone through Project activities; definition of the modalities of cooperation among the group leaders, for the YE implementation by taking into account needs and problems, emerged from the '"information-informal meeting". With this project we will try to find alternative solutions in commuting skills as volunteers to professionals and self-employed.

VoVo team visited Tallinn Youth Work Centre (TYWC) that belongs to the Sports and Youth Department under Tallinn City Government that was officially established in the beginning of February, 2003 in Tallinn, Estonia.

Our host Pavel Vassiljev from Shokkin' Group showed us examples of a good practice and how to support and create possibilities for development of youth through self-initiative and developmental activities. The organization is collaborating with non-governmental organizations and other institutions working in the youth field to implement various activities and projects. The work of Tallinn Youth Work Centre is divided into several fields:

YOUTH CENTRES are the places that can be visited voluntarily by any youngster regardless of their social and/or economic background with the aim of free communication and self-development. It is possible to communicate, play, seek information, get advice and help from the youth workers. The youth centres offer different clubs and studios, youth events, projects and programmes, regional town camps and international youth exchanges. The work of the youth centres is based on the open youth work method. In order to participate in the activities, projects and programmes that Tallinn Youth Work Centre offers, youngsters are obliged to own a membership card. There are both, Estonians and non-Estonians (mainly Russians) visiting the youth centres. 60% of the visitors are boys and 60% are aged 14–18.

YOUTH INFORMATION AND COUNSELLING. The aim of TYIF is to collect and distribute youth information in Tallinn that helps young people to organize their spare time. TYIC offers information concerning following domains: free time facilities, youth employment, hobby schools, youth entertainment and events, international study and work possibilities, also counselling services for youth, their families, teachers, social workers and youth workers as well. Youth Counselling Centre offers psychological counselling and career counselling to the youth, parents and people who work with young people.

INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS. Tallinn Youth Work Centre has been working with international projects since its creation in 2003. During this time TYWC has been European Voluntary Service sending and hosting organization to many volunteers going to and coming from all over Europe. Among the projects there have been short-term projects, also individual and group projects. TYWC with its youth centres has also been a hosting organization for volunteers from AMICUS programmes and the Erasmus Placement Programme.

VoVo team leaded by representatives of NGO, Mia and Luka during visit had experienced a lot of good practice and gained knowledge that could be implemented in present infrastructure in Croatia on local and national level. For sure gained knowledge will be incorporated in future projects of VoVo as in future work of NGO.

VoVo took part in a project for moblity of youth workers in Thessaloniki, the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of Greek Macedonia. This March Thessaloniki was place to be. From the 1st to 9th of March 2015 that city hosted project „Stay fit-Stay calm“.

We live in the world where is more important "to have" than "to be". Everyday life is occupied with schedules, jobs and tasks. Atmosphere of chaos, stress, unhealthy way of life, not enough physical activity and lack of personal time are quiet killers of physical and mental wellbeing of every human.

The project offered opportunity to learn how to deal with exactly those issues and improve our mental and physical health. Youh workers from Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Spain and Croatia, total 40 of them, arrived to experience various activities in order to get valuable lesson - how to improve their quality of live. Based on non-formal education and learning by participation methodology, project was aiming to motivate young people on outdoor activities and sports but also to have an energetic lifestyle. Through diverse activities with innovative methods, such as team work, role-playing, artistic creation, social stories, steam groups, brainstorming, movement games and behavioral rehearsal every participant was able to empower himself and get new skills.

Benefit from this project was multiply. Not only from workshops, educational visits and presentations, but also from interaction between participants and exchange their personal experience and knowledge. Those nine days enriched every participant with numerous new informations and tips in area dealing with stress and how to improve quality of life on everyday level, but most important, reminded all of them on forgotten power of playing games and spending time outdoors.

Western civilization has evolved through the ages to become the most advanced community technologically and democratically. We are all part of it, we live it every day and we add or supstract from it, but despite all our advances and accepted social and personal norms the base axiom of our Judeo-Christian western civilization is that we were all created equal before God. Sadly we often forget this premise and engage, often unawares, in various forms of discrimination.

As active and responsible citizens of the New Europe, it is the obligation of us all to fight against discrimination not only in our communities, but more importantly; within ourselves! This idea that change comes from within has motivated us to create, organize and promote a training course about discrimination; "Stop disCRIMEination" which will be held in Zagreb, Croatia from 10-18 of April 2015. As the name of the TC itself implies, discrimination is a crime which always has two casualties, the perpetrator and the victim.

Throughout the project we will address discrimination in all its forms including positive discrimination, stereotypes social exclusion and inclusion, crypto discrimination suffered by people with limited possibilities, ethnic and religious minorities etc. but also take in count rare occasions when perceived discrimination is abused by certain groups to extort their societies. Our hope is that our participants will actively engage in promoting understanding and awareness about issues they will learn during the TC and, by doing so, better their communities!

Learning and personal development are a two-way process, it requires a willing learner and a source of knowledge, the best of which is another human, especially a peer. Everyone has something unique to share and teach others and if that something is instrumental in bettering our everyday lives or professional activities it is our duty to share it with others so that we all may reap the benefits! In that light, our president undertook a 1 month job shadowing with a fellow organization in far away Bangalore in India, ICDE. He had the privilege of participating in ICDE's activities, working with their staff and fully embracing Indian everyday life through his host family.

The experience sharing was very intense and we had the opportunity to gain an insight into ICDE and how they function, how to achieve the most with what little funds you have, how every little good deed can make a difference and most importantly, how to involve foreign volunteers into the organizations everyday activities. Job shadowing is an important career and leadership development activity and it helps both parties to learn and exchange ideas, and we shared with ICDE our experiences with Erasmus+ and how they could possibly take advantage of them to better their communities ever further!

On International Volunteer Day (IVD) 2014, we not only celebrate volunteerism in all its facets – but also pay special tribute to people’s participation in making a difference locally, nationally and globally. IVD 2014 highlights the contribution of volunteers in engaging people from the grass-roots in decision-making processes, ultimately creating space for participation that leads to: stronger governance, social cohesion, peace and sustainable development.

On 5 December, 2014 join us in recognizing all volunteers' commitment and applaud hundreds of millions of people who volunteer to make change happen.

What does it mean to be an active citizen? To run 10 km every morning? Do yoga? Swim? No! To be an active citizen means to be aware of issues and problems around us. It means standing up and giving your best to fight against them and spend our young days sharing this conviction with our peers because noone else will solve our problems for us. That's why to be active means most of to be brave! Our participants have shared their views on this issue and what do they do to be an active citizen of the new Europe!

Be Active is a result of "The Cadre of Change", project that is funded by the European Union, created by NGO VoVo from Zagreb, Croatia

All proud, all significant !

Nothing could describe the spirit of Erasmus+ in a better way. This project has brought together 30 energetic and motivated young people from varying backgrounds and countries together into one big happy group. This has motivated one of the teams on our project to visualize their slogan through video and photography. Every nation of our proud continent has contributed greatly to humanity even if it might not be common knowledge and this video glorifies everyone as proud and significant.

All Proud All Significant is a result of "The Cadre of Change", project that is funded by the European Union, created by NGO VoVo from Zagreb, Croatia

Evergreen

Bring the world some poetry:Rhyme about ecology

Nature is everything to us, it surrounds us, it nourishes us and it gives us purpose. Yet we often mistreat it and regard it as given and perpetual. The truth is that our treatment of nature will be felt by generations to come! This fact has motivated one of the groups during the TC "The Cadre of Change" to dedicate their work to nature and our relation to it.

Evergreen is social campaign made during TC The Cadre of Change to promote importance of responsibility, awareness and active citizenship with the aim of preserving our planet

To ignore a crime is morally just as bad as committing it! That's why we must fight against indifference around us, but within us also. A responsible citizen is aware of this and we were lucky to have such a group of responsible young people with us during our project. They dedicated their work to common issues plaguing our societies through video and photography.

Share to Change is a result of "The Cadre of Change", project that is funded by the European Union, created by NGO VoVo from Zagreb, Croatia. Follow facebook page and Share to Change

VoVo thanks to The Cadre of Change team for bringing out successful project under Erasmus+ programme

We live in an increasingly interconnected world that provides us with opportunities that young people in the past never could have imagines. Along with these new opportunities, new challenges arise also as well as new skills that are integral to solving these challenges. Digital art, photography, social networks and an ever increasing need and value of creativity have shaped our young lives and to just give our best might not be enough. We must endeavor to better ourselves through education and experience diffusion with our peers and elders.

With that in mind we have along with our partner organizations from Moldavia, Poland, Georgia, Romania, Ukraine, France and Armenia organized a training course to endow youth that will participate with the above mentioned skills and competences so they may take on the new world without fear or doubts. All partners share the belief that only through continuous education and selfless altruism one can make the most of his or her life.

This project has immersed the youth workers into an alternate reality where the spirit of volunteerism, multiculturalism and tolerance intertwine to shape a true active citizen of a new Europe. 24 youth workers from 8 countries has taught useful tools in promotion of their work such as: social media, photography, videos, flash mobs, exhibitions, fairs etc. They have learnt how to create or develop new communication channels and platforms (such as: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter). How to raise awareness on the social issues relevant to the work of participants among them and their target groups; to stimulate the sense of entrepreneurship and responsibility for their work among participants (a lot of young people feel resigned and put off not being able to reach out to their target group or raise voice on the important topic.

Thanks to all participants! VoVo team can't believe that the project has finished. These eight days with you went so fast and it were simply unbelievable! Huge thanks to all of you for making it happen! It was a real pleasure to see you in Moldova - all of you are AMAZING! We really enjoyed the project :)) I hope you did as well! Of course first times are always special and it will never be the same again. We really love you all! Take care and finally have some rest!!

Muga de Sayago is a small town in Spain where 50 young people from 6 countries came to the Youth Exchange "Hashtag" which was held on 9th-18th September. There were Romanians, Greeks, Germans, Spaniards, Portuguese and of course the Croats.

The end of summer is the best time to be in beautiful Spain, so we enjoyed 9 days of fun, games, adventure, learning, and excursions.

Each day we had a non-formal learning activities, such as icebraking games, presentations, role playing games, creating movies and much more. Evening time was reserved for learning something new about one country, its culture and language along with plenty of national cuisine, music and dance. Croatian evening was remembered for a special excitement around the table with national delicacies. Equally special was a Spanish bull race, German language exercises, Romanian dances and Greek feta cheese. It is amazing how many different traditions in the smallest continent.

Salamanca is a city with a large and prestigious university, so we promoted Erasmus + program among students by Sharing leaflets and talking about exchange programs. The amazing architecture of Salamanca impressed everybody. We saw the famous cathedral, but we are most surprised with ordinary buildings that are also beautifully maintained, even a gas station.

In many workshops we had the opportunity to discuss and highlight the problem of youth unemployment in Europe. Also, we have gained practical knowledge and develop skills in resume writing, interviews and the use of new technologies for the purpose of self-promotion and employment

Trip to Portugal for many of us stayed the fondest memory of this exchange. Only a few minutes drive from the border, we saw the beautiful Portuguese countryside, monuments, people and their traditions.

As a result of this exchange, we have created a brochure for young people with instructions for all the steps needed for successful employment. Brochure will help young people to be in demand in the labor market, to present themselves to employers in the best way and to keep a job. Soon all the information assembled in a e-book will be published.

Erasmus+ youth exchange “Let’s Training course „New Programme, New Future “ took place from the 15th to 21th of September 2014 in Málaga, Spain. A total of 36 participants from Bulgaria, Cyprus, Finland, Greece, Italy, Martinique, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey and Croatia were involved in presentations, workshops, team-building games and other non-formal education activities relating to the new ERASMUS+ programme which opens a wide and varied opportunities for young people.

For participants, except new information about ERASMUS+ and gaining new skills, this programme enabled the introduction of new cultures, new customs, lots of laughter and positive energy, but most importantly making new friends…

Hereby NGO “VoVo“ would like to thank the organizers of this wonderful project for teaching us that beyond borders everything is possible.

Erasmus+ youth exchange “Let’s Turn Discrimination into Tolerance!” took place in Kaunas from the 6th to 14th of September of this year. 36 participants from Lithuania, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Romania and Turkey were involved in a variety of non-formal education activities and discussions.

The exchange aimed to find and analyse persisting cases of discrimination against various minorities, good practices in order to reduce it, as well as strategies, which could help increase tolerance toward minorities in the participant countries and beyond.

This was done through: (1) group exercises, games, quizzes, simulation activities and interactive workshops on different types of discrimination; (2) country presentations on discrimination cases persisting in Europe; (3) various art-related activities (poster, photo-wall making, theatrical plays, etc.); (4) team sports and outdoor activities; (5) special video afternoons; (6) public activities (video shooting in the city centre), and many more.

We have been also visited by a number of guests, as well as visited Kaunas Cultural Centre of Various Nations and the museum of the 9th fortress ourselves. Thanks to their amazing presentations and resulting discussions, a lot has been learned about the situation of these minorities in Lithuania and elsewhere in the world.The project venue was Domus Pacis Guest house, which is located in one of the oldest monasteries in Kaunas. Such setting made discussion about religious or sexual minorities especially interesting. However, our hosts have shown great tolerance both to the participants and the activities of the project.

Every evening each of the participating countries had their cultural evenings. During these the presenting team would show their country’s traditions, culture, music, dances as well as cuisine. It has helped everyone to develop much bigger mutual understanding and get the so needed cultural exchange. Not to mention, that the participants had a great deal of fun during these evenings.

The project has finished with a party in a special trolleybus and an awards night. Teams and individual participants were awarded for their positivity, cooperation, fun and more. Summing up the project activities, the exchange was a great success in terms of both experience gained and information learned, as well as satisfaction of the participants. This can be perfectly seen from the testimonials that the participants have left, e.g. “I loved this project!”; “Great organizers, accommodation, food and the rest!”; “Guest speakers were perfect”; „I‘ve learned so much about discrimination!! This was an amazing exchange!“.

However, “Let’s Turn discrimination into Tolerance!” still continues. Various videos and other material produced by the project’s participants to promote tolerance will be continuously posted on a specially created website: http://tolerant-youth.org, social media (www.fb.com/activeyouthlt), press and youth organisation websites. The material shared has already gathered a lot of attention, reached more than 10,000 young people, and will continue to make the youth across Europe more tolerant! Eventually, we will also publish an e-booklet outlined during the project, which will include some of the best solutions to persisting discrimination across Europe

It was an eventful morning when we received confirmation from the Croatian National Agency that our first project, the training course „The Cadre of Change“, was approved! At the end of October we will organize a training course in Digital arts and photography in Moldavia with 7 other partners totaling 24 participants and 6 staff. We are delighted to finally give our best at hosting a project after being participants on so many. This will be our greatest challenge so far and we are taking great care to organize it the best we can for this is more than just our first (of many hopefully) project, this is our thank you to all the people who created the Erasmus+ programme as well as the multitudes of organizations that hosted projects we participated on, all of which left a great mark on us. It was those projects that got us motivated to create VoVo in the first place and strive to provide our communities a great opportunity for gaining new skills, experiences and most important of all, new friendships. The project received an excellent rating from the National agency thanks to the great work of our project writers from Croatia and our partners abroad and that has further strengthen our resolve and motivation to organize an excellent project that we will look back upon with pride and joy.

The Croatian participants have been selected and are motivated and ready for the training course as are we all who will take part. Again, I thank and congratulate everyone who took part in making this possible and look forward to meeting you all in Moldavia!

Discrimination towards minorities has always been one of the key issues in Europe. People of different races, cultures, sexual orientations and religions are often enduring intolerance, which results in their exclusion from the society, as well as problems in the labour market. Even though the EU acts towards eliminating these wrongs, countries such as Lithuania, Spain, Romania, Turkey, Croatia and Italy are still lacking behind.

In order to change this, six youth organisations from previously mentioned countries are organising a youth exchange “Let’s Turn Discrimination into Tolerance” in Kaunas, Lithuania.

All the partner organizations participating in the project believe that educating young people is the key to progress on these issues. Thus, 36 young people will gather together on September 6-14th to address these problems in the countries where they are especially acute. This project for youth will be organized with financial support from the European Commission’s programme Erasmus+. During the nine days of the project they will share existing experiences of exclusion of minorities, discuss the ways on how to: 1) facilitate their social integration, 2) defend human rights, 3) seek equal opportunities and 4) work towards the elimination of discrimination.

The participants will also prepare videos and an e-booklet, as well as be involved in public activities, which will promote tolerance to everyone. By doing this, the exchange also aims to help the participating youth from minorities increase their self-esteem, learn how to stand-up for themselves and fight for their rights. At the same time, it will help them grow professionally, raise their social awareness, keep them active, involve them in discussions and decision making in an international environment, develop the spirit of volunteerism, and enhance their social skills, as well as multilingualism and tolerance through non-formal education. We believe that this would help the participating youth perform better in their studies and find a job in the future. The participants have started working already even before the youth exchange. Apart from other things, they will have to present the situation in their country – the overall level of tolerance, discrimination against certain minorities and examples of good practices in order to stop that, which they are actively preparing for.

Of course the project aims for its discussion to effectively reach a wider audience and facilitate tolerance to minorities in all the partner countries. In order to reach that, you can help as well. All the experiences of the participants, activities, resources of the project and everything else relevant will be published in the website of the youth exchange – http://tolerant-youth.org. Feel welcome to visit it now, suggest project activities, relevant topics and issues, problems persisting in your countries or even write an entry to the “Tolerance Blog”. Everything will be much appreciated!

On 17 December 1999, in its resolution 54/120, the United Nations General Assembly endorsed the recommendation made by the World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth (Lisbon, 8-12 August 1998) that 12 August be declared International Youth Day.

The theme of International Youth Day 2014 is "Youth and Mental Health."

Youth with mental health conditions can often experience stigma and discrimination, which in turn can lead to exclusion and/or discourage people from seeking help for fear of being negatively ‘labelled’. Youth with mental health conditions can often experience stigma and discrimination, which in turn can lead to exclusion and/or discourage people from seeking help for fear of being negatively ‘labelled’. Efforts are needed to overcome this stigma to ensure that young people with mental health conditions can lead full and healthy lives free of isolation and unnecessary shame, and that they openly seek the services and support they need. You can be part of these efforts!

The 2014 observance of International Youth Day will raise awareness on this important topic, as well as highlight the experiences of brave, young individuals who have chosen to speak out about these issues with the objective of overcoming stigma and discrimination to ensure that young people with mental health conditions can lead full and healthy lives free from isolation and unnecessary shame, and openly seek the services and support they need. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Celebrate our first year!

It is every person obligation to be an active, responsible and good citizen, to achieve all that is to transcend the petty limitations of egoism, lethargy and indifference, but to succeed in this undertaking one is required to bravely take a dive into the unknown. Only a year has passed since we came together and took that dive by founding this organization to further our societies through selflessness and altruism. As with everything new in life, we were anxious in the beginning, anxious and afraid, afraid of not fulfilling our hopes and goals which led us to form VoVo in the first place. Standing here now, a few days before our first anniversary (8.July), I can proudly say that we have achieved much more than we could ever have hoped for! We took part in our partner's projects around Europe, and further! From the British Isles to the Caucasus and up the very peaks of Sicily's Etna, our participants learned and shared their own knowledge with their peers through the Erasmus+ programme of the EU. It is through this very program that we plan to further expand our activities and actively take on the mantle of planning and organizing new projects with our dear partner organizations. Even while writing this, several of our projects are undergoing evaluation by the Croatian National Agency and we look forward to their results, confident and hopeful that this fall we shall crown all our hard work and dedication up to this moment with our very first project, to be held in Moldavia! As the president of the organization, I would like to thank everyone in VoVo for their hard work in making this organization what it is today, especially our General Director Mia and General Secretary Luka, without whose motivation and energy we would not have such great results after only 1 year of existence. Thank you for reading and we look forward to working with you!

Ivor Mardešić, President of the association.

Our volunteers talking about experience in EU projects on Croatian National television!

„TicTac“ Training Course, Bruxelles

June, 2014.

TICTAC is a network training for programmes and targets at voluntary and professional youth workers and youth leaders involved in international youth work and interested in using the new EU Programme for Youth in the strategic development of their work organisation. Bringing together representatives of youth organisations from different European countries the TICTAC TC worked at improving the potential of the participants and consequently increase the quality of future international projects. NGO VoVo has participated to build around long-term strategic planning and project cycle, to upgrade quality features of international youth work when building a local strategic plan as a tool for quality improvement of youth projects.

Partnership building event “Go East” Tbilisi, Georgia

March, 2014.

NGO "VoVo" has sent its participants on this project within the Erasmus+ programme to Georgia in the Caucasus along with many other organisations from the EU and its partner countries in the Eastern Europe. We have acquired many quality contacts and partners as well as the knowledge how to create new projects and further the aims and work of our organisations.

This project has helped us improve our competences in creating and participating in projects, we have also improved the key competences of our participants such as: foreign language skills, communication, learning to learn, social and civic competences, cultural awareness and most important of all, a sense of entrepreneurship and a will to actively participate in the everyday life of our local communities.

Udruga Volim Volontirati - "VoVo"

Volunteers give more and get the future, Catania, Italy

June, 2013.

Our participants have had the chance to learn more about the benefits and wonders of volunteering on the project „Volunteers give more and get the future!“ held in Sicily in June 2013. With the help of the trainers and the cooperation with the other participants we have gotten a better insight into volunteering and all its altruistic and practical aspects.

All the acquired competences will and have been used in our previous and future projects. In VoVo we believe that volunteering is an integral part of responsible citizenship and is a vital part of personal betterment as well as the betterment of the community.